Anthems For A Seventeen Year Old Girl
by TheAttentionJustEncouragesHer
Summary: Convergences of what is, what was, and what never should be.   also noted as Sakura related incidences .
1. Chapter 1

_Just a place for me to leave my random bouts of inspiration that don't fall into conventional places. I claim no ownership of anything you recognise._

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Sakura sat on the brick wall outside of the school. Short, with Scuffed shoes, and baggy, unfitted clothes, large headphones resting around her neck and her hair covering her eyes, she sat in stark contrast to the others coming and going. Alone.

Her eyes drifted upwards, towards a group of people. They wore tight clothes, make up and always stood with their heads held high. Uniform. They talked and laughed and hugged and smiled but once the spotlight left them, the smiles turned cold and their eyes hardened.

And in the middle the tallest, the most made up, tightest clothed member stood, laughing behind her hand and pointing and jostling and mimicking the acts which had been repeated a thousand times over.

Sakura looked away, pulling her headphones up as her eyes glazed and remembered a time when she had company. When a tall girl, comfortable with who she was would sit beside her, sharing her headphones. When they would talk about subjects that would leave their uniform peers baffled, and stood out for their concessions to comfort rather than appearance.

She remembered a time when they would share hugs that felt like fierce empathy and protection, after nights of Empty houses and Degradation by people supposedly called family. She remembered the peaceful sounds of innocent breaths, slowed by sleep as she herself drifted to happier places where everyone could be just as pure.

Sakura felt the eyes on her, and looked up, meeting silver. In a second, a million occurrences raced behind the quicksilver gaze and mourning quickly followed suit.

Sakura stood quickly and in a moment, the brick wall she habitually haunted was jarringly empty. Melancholy eyes stared unseeingly at the place she left herself behind.

_It didn't matter. It wasn't enough. I wasn't enough. _

Her heart still thudded dully, painfully.

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_**Used to be one of the rotten ones and I liked you for that.**__**  
**__**Now your all gone got your make-up on and your not coming back.**_

__


	2. Chapter 2

**Simply a little introspective sort of piece, with healthy doses of closure, acceptance and whatever pairing you chose! I don't own naruto, but this is a body of writing i am rather proud of, so please don't reproduce it in whole or part without asking me first.**

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_All I can say is, at the end of the day, I hope you're happy._

_With pen to paper, I feel no bitterness, only nostalgia and relief, and so I will you well._

_I hope you're happy with the choices made, I hope you're comfortable with where you've been and where you are going, and i hope you're happy with the things you let go, as well as those you chose to keep clutched close to you like the treasures they must be._

_I truly hope, one day, you'll look back on your life and say "I did what I thought was right."_

_I hope these things for you because, by your choice or mine, I don't believe I'll be there, alongside you to help, to guide, to be just as confused as you about it all._

_We walked the same road (the joining of Sakura lane, Sasuke Street via Team seven road) but your eyes drifted at the fork in the road and turned left. I was too far down the right side to even see it happen; only when the tree's cleared from the space in between those parallel roads did I look over and notice I'd been talking to nothing but the scent of tomatoes._

_And as I look to that far away (currently but ever changing) left road, I see the echo of what once was, and what will never be again. Those boulders and that fork came between us and even if those two roads join once more, shall we still be treading them? It would not be the same road... just as it would not be the same us._

_So, regardless of whether it ominously looms, leading me away from my safe little road, when the choice – my own personal fork in the road- comes, I hope I'll make a decision that one day I can look back on and say "I did what I thought was right for me."_

_And though a part of me will always cherish the scent of tomatoes and small, hidden smiles, another part will always remember that premature fork in the road and the echo- the space on my path you'd decided you no longer wanted to occupy._

_Thank you for many things, but most of all thank you for teaching me that my all could be someone else's nothing._

_From the woman who made a lot of mistakes, but hopes she will never have to look back and call whatever we had one of them._

_

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_

Sakura laid down her pen, feeling equal parts drained, liberated and solemn, but as she heard the key turn in the lock, a feeling of finality, of closure set it.

The letter was sealed and locked in a draw, its purpose served and on its way to forgotten, and, smiling, she took the hand of her new walking companion and started off on their road.

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**So... any thoughts? Tell me :)**


End file.
